Questions and Answers with Graeme and Tim: Part 1

QUESTION: It is great the way you have sold out all the venues for this tour but when did you start doing ISIHAC recordings at theatres rather than at the BBC?

---

Graeme: The early shows were almost all recorded at the Paris Theatre in London. It wasn’t until series 10 in 1983 that we started broadening our horizons, taking the recordings to student venues at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and Imperial College.

In 1990 (series 17) we recorded a couple of shows at the Westminster Theatre in London, then in 1991 (series 18) we played the Brighton Comedy Festival. Series 20 and 21 in 1992 saw us playing Brighton again and Oxford, a gig at the Palace Hotel Buxton (Tim’s home town) and the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.

Series 26 in 1995 was the first series recorded entirely outside London.

Further nerdy information can be found on a variety of websites, eg:
ISIHAC info site
The Officially Unofficial ISIHAC Web Pages
British Comedy – ISIHAC

Tim: Not a good start, but I honestly don’t remember when we started. It’s only recently that we have started to charge for seats so we can afford to spread our wings round the country. Originally we just wanted to go to places to make fun of them

QUESTION: What do you do on the day of a Clue recording (i.e. before and after the show)?

---

Graeme: Some of us will have travelled the night before, others may arrive on the day. We meet at noon in the hotel, and retire to a Conference Room where we have a light buffet lunch and start talking through the show. The Producer Jon Naismith goes over the schedule round by round so everyone knows what games are to be played, and we sort out the musical rounds – eg One Song to the Tune of Another – just to make sure the teams know the tunes! After tea we split up into teams to discuss and prepare rounds like Sound Charades, which of course we keep secret from the others until the show. At about 6pm we get cabs to the theatre where we have time for a quick sound check, and a run at the tunes with Colin Sell to make sure they are in the right keys for us. We clear off the stage by 7, just before the audience start coming in, and hang around backstage in the dressing rooms until we hear Naismith go on and start his warm-up to the audience. While he goes through his familiar routine, we either have a nap or a short walk, or spend a restful hour or two in a nearby library or cinema. Then, when at last he’s finished, we’re on!

After the show we have a breather in the dressing rooms, then out to sign autographs and chat with the folk at the stage door. After that we usually go back to the hotel or a restaurant nearby for a meal before retiring for the night.

Tim: We usually arrive the night before – basically to have a good meal and a general natter.

We all meet up on the afternoon of the recording to chat through the various rounds to make sure we all understand what we’re doing! Previously we’d start a round only to discover that we all had a different idea as to how it would work. It wasn’t good to have a round where we were, basically, bickering about the rules. Humph is brilliant , but he’s not one of nature’s referees.

QUESTION:How many people are generally involved in a recording of Clue?

---

Graeme: Humph, the teams and Colin Sell, of course; Jon Naismith the Producer who has a Programme Assistant and our brilliant sound engineers, usually two of them. Humph’s manager Susan da Costa and Iain Pattinson the writer are usually there for the recordings too. (We mustn’t forget Samantha and her entourage of course.) Those are the people we bring to the show, the stage crew and front-of-house staff etc are provided by the theatre.

Tim: The cast, obviously. Jon Naismith the producer. Iain Pattinson Humph’s writer and genius comedy mind. John’s PA. 2 recording experts. We also rely on the theatres’ backstage crews for lighting and general stage management. Front of house ushers, bar persons. And most important of all, the audience.

QUESTION: Have you ever received any complaints regarding some of the content of the jokes from people with absolutely filthy minds who read rude things into material that is obviously as pure as the driven snow? If so what sort of response would it generate from the panel?

---

Graeme: As far as I know we don’t get many complaints. After all, there is almost no bad language or explicit comment in the shows. And as you point out, if anyone finds a rude meaning in our innocent material, we can always accuse them of having a filthy mind! Jon Naismith deals with any objections that are made, so the rest of us don’t tend to hear about them, and the very few we do get tend to be about non-PC remarks or matters of taste.

Tim: We don’t do filthy – we just pull it out and hope the audience are satisfied.

QUESTION: How many times do you practise 'One Song to the tune of another' before the recording?

---

Graeme: We only have time for a quick run at it to make sure we can hit the notes.

Tim: Once with Colin – Jon checks that we know the tunes (sort of). Jeremy doesn’t need to rehearse – he’s a natural.

QUESTION: After all of Humph’s attempts to explain 'One Song', do you fully understand the concept now?

---

Graeme: No, but we pretend we do just to humour him.

Tim: No, do you?

QUESTION: How did you decide upon who would play the swannee whistle and who would play the kazoo? Whose idea was it to play these instruments in the first place?

---

Graeme: I was looking for a musical round using instruments that were easy to get a sound out of, but difficult to play beautifully. The kazoo always sounds daft, and the Swanee whistle is almost impossible to play a recognisable tune on. They are very distinctive too, so on radio you can easily tell them apart. The voices of Barry and Willie were very suited to the kazoo, so Tim and I ended up on the Swanees.

Tim: I and Graeme used to play the swannee whistle occasionally on ISIRTA so we grabbed the chance. If you think it was a good idea, then it was me who thought of it.

QUESTION: What would be your ideal 'Pick Up Song' song?

---

Graeme: The easiest would be a song with a firm natural rhythm and an easy tune. However the ideal one would be a song that is so tricky it would be impossible to come back in on the beat – the audience would love to see us humiliated by that!

Tim: One that doesn’t require extra surgery for the high notes.

QUESTION: How much of a say do you get in who the special guests are?

---

Graeme: All the team members discuss possible guests with the producer, but Tim has the ultimate say, as he has to work with the guest on his team. As we only have six recording days in a year and therefore room for 6 guests, we find there are now too many super guests we would love to come back, but we can’t fit them in to our schedule, and new guests are always more than welcome too. So there’s a very long list of people we would like to invite or invite back.

Tim: I suggest people I’d like to take part and Jon always runs suggestions by me. If I’m not keen then the guest doesn’t appear. I’m keen that Sean Lock is a guest sometime, but he always seems to be working.

I’m also pushing for Sue Perkins.

QUESTION: If you could choose anyone in the world to be the guest, who would it be and why?

---

Graeme: I find it impossible to narrow my wish list down to one – and it wouldn’t be very diplomatic to try!

Tim: Assuming I can pick from the past then Willie Rushton would be top of the list followed closely by Peter Cook. I reckon Hugh Lawrie would be pretty useful. The guests I really like are the ones who don’t think they’re worthy – Jack Dee is a classic example and of course he was more than worthy.

QUESTION: Samantha is a great asset to the show and we're all really jealous of her ability to score, but can you tell us how and where and by whom she was discovered?

---

Graeme: Samantha has been giving us a hand for longer than it would be gallant to say. Our producer at the time spotted her while working behind the bar at the BBC Club (he often served there in between Producing jobs). She came in one night and ordered a Double Entendre, so he gave her one. Later he made her an offer and after thinking about it long and hard she took up the position.

Tim: I think we all discovered Samantha on the same evening – gosh she was a busy girl.

QUESTION: What is Samantha really like?

---

Graeme: To be honest, she can be a bit of a minx!

Tim: She’s every bloke’s dream girl – though normally I don’t go for breasts that big.

QUESTION: Tim: Do you still have your carrot underpants from Saturday Night Grease?

---

Graeme: Tim can tell you, but I believe they are on permanent loan to the Museum of Mankind.

Tim: Sadly not, but if anyone sees them please claim them back on my behalf.

QUESTION: Graeme: Your 'Scoutrageous' shorts are being much admired on the Saucy Gibbon. As one of the writers, was it your decision or Bill's for you to have rather short shorts in that episode? Or did Tim have a say in this?
Were you surprised when you saw how short the shorts were?
How difficult was it to get them on?

---

Graeme: Bill wrote the short shorts. On the recording day I was a little startled at how short they were, especially when the Costume Designer ordered his assistant to shorten them even further, and she took them up an inch while I was wearing them.

Tim: Graeme insisted because I said I had the best legs (which I have)